Music Theater Rocks! Organic Rock Singing 101 and Beyond
Tracy Neal · Journal of Singing · 2013
GOOD ROCK SINGING, LIKE GOOD CLASSICAL SINGING, is natural (organic), stylistically and emotionally integrated (authentic), and transformative (artistic). To learn stylization, classical and traditional music theater students must set aside their genre-of-origin filters to appreciate and imitate singing. To emulate aesthetic: employ a more natural, conversational vocal production; deemphasize classical virtuosity and formality in matters of pitch, vibrato, structure, and rhythm; be available to respond to impulse to move; stylize, using ornamentations (e.g., neighbor notes, appoggiaturas, acciaccaturas, inverted rhythms, inverted pitches, and ladders) in a manner consistent rock; add, delete, or alter lyrics as needed; and experiment intriguing and compelling breathing patterns. With patience and consistent effort, these skills can be developed by open minded and willing students and utilized in their performances.Yet, while a performance grounded in these techniques will yield a generic rock styling, training more sophisticated techniques greatly increases both performer's artistic and vocal capacities for delivering songs; and, most importantly, allows audience to experience an undeniably authentic performance. ability to make nuanced artistic choices is technical and artistic bedrock for successful, authentic rocker. Though these advanced skills may be resistant to training, they are transformative once acquired. To produce authentically rocking performances, students should master artistry of organic delivery, theatrical pitch nuances, and with ornaments.ORGANIC DELIVERYNine ingredients, essential for credibility, contribute to a spontaneously authentic delivery (organic delivery). By counteracting expected structural mechanisms, and planning rehearsed emotional interpretations, singer can present a genuine, in-the-moment character while being true to aesthetic.1) Allocate an unstressed syllable on beat to emphasize lyrics and deemphasize beat. This is not syncopation, which highlights beat by stressing off-beat, but a tactic to obscure beat by removing expected stress pattern. Have student clap a standard beat and sing well known opening phrase of Somewhere Over Rainbow er of over on beat. initial training can be frustrating, but student should be able to see just how effective disguising beat can be and how it can inform audience's attachment to conversational, organic delivery of a lyric. With concentration and practice student can acquire this skill. This tactic is ubiquitous in popular music, including Vanessa Williams's version of Colors of Wind (or ask grinning bobcat why he grinned) and Diana Krall's Baby, Baby All Time (kind of curly hair). It is not confined to popular music; it resides in hybridized vocals (e.g., folk-rock and jazz-rock), and examples in contemporary music theater include Brian Lowdermilk's The Girl Who Drove Away (how miles keep on flying by) and Scott Alan's Watch Me Soar (I'm dreaming big so watch me soar).2) Layer your emotive lyrics the to establish psychological pressure. Applying growl should be approached as an emotional contextualization rather than a musical effect: this technique does not add vocal dirt for a cool sound; rather, it depicts struggle. growl is part warning and part disclosure, like a threatened dog's growl, and it should vent when character does not want to speak honestly but is overpowered by a psychological need to communicate. growl can also emphasize pointed communication (without a stressful context), as if to say to audience, I don't care about my singing-I care that you connect [get] what I'm saying. To train growl, have student execute a period of glottal fry. Then have him/her coordinate sustained glottal fry pitch in a three-note scale (e. …